by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/27/2026 Welcome to Draft Season! Technically the new draft season starts the day after the NFL Draft but with the College Football season set to kick off tomorrow and the NFL season only 2 weeks away, I'm using this timeline to start my official Draft Content for the 2027 season. Draft content will start with this Mock Draft but as my content showed last year, I will be again prioritizing player evaluations and team makeup over Mock Draft exer

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/18/2026 Photo Credits to Zach Dimmit via Sports Illustrated 10. Cam Coleman WR Texas Let's start this list off with a wild card pick straight away! Truth be told I'm not too sure if this pick is indeed a hot take because Cam Coleman is an elite WR athlete who will be joining a Texas team with one of the best QBs in the country in an offensive-friendly system. In two seasons at Auburn, Coleman did well statistically but didn't take the year 2-

by Zak Drapeau and Will Gilhooly Sportz Nation - 8/16/2026 Photo Credits to James Lang via Imagn Images All Odds courtesy of DraftKings on 8/13 Starting tomorrow we can officially say, "College Football is back." The season won't actually start until August 29th when TCU and UNC play in Dublin for the College Football Classic. But the first official, AP Top-25 poll will release tomorrow at Noon. Before the coaches' poll becomes official, Sportz Nation's Zak Drapeau and Will G

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/11/2026 When I made this list in 2022 which you can find here, I had Shavkat, Du Plessis, Chimaev, Pereira and Topuria, so I can't wait to see where this group of prospects will climb to by 2030. Honorable Mentions: - Ion Baraniewski - Mairon Santos - Ethyn Ewing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Photo Credits to Jeff Bottari via Zuffa LLC #10 Tommy McMillen Division Lightweight Age 28y, 239d UFC Record 2-0 Finishes 2 McMillen j

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 7/26/2026 Photo Credit to Stephanie Scarbrough via Associated Press 20. Matthew Stafford Rams Quarterback Last Year's Rank: N/A Does Matthew Stafford have one of the best arms in the league? Absolutely. Is he surrounded by one of the best rosters and Head Coaches in the league? Yes. Has he shown to be inconsistent year-by-year? Yes he has. Stafford was rightfully given the MVP award last year and showed that when healthy and put with the right

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 7/19/2026 30. Jared Goff Lions Quarterback Last Year's Rank: 55 Photo Credits to Peter Casey via Imagn Images Jared Goff had another outstanding season last year in Detroit in the midst of one of the worst teams Dan Campbell has ever produced and for that reason I'm seeing a LOT of people that are really underrating Goff this year. 4564-34-8 was his line last season and it was a statistical down year for him some how as he continues to show tha

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 6/18/2026 Photo Credits to Chris Brunskill/ Fantasia via Getty images Group A Mexico 3 South Korea 3 Czechia 0 South Africa 0 Game Recaps After the first round of games, Group A played out how we expected it to with Mexico and South Korea the victors. Mexico is not only the strongest side of the group but has homefield advantage as well and that was clear in the Cup's opening match against South Africa. South Korea would have a closer, 2-1 vic

by Sportz Nation - 5/4/2026 2026 Review The Celtics miraculous 2026 season has come to an end with a Game 7 loss to the 76ers after initially leading the series 3-2. To start the season being predicted to miss the playoffs, then become the #2 seed in the East and Favorite to win the Eastern Conference Finals, all before getting heartbroken in the First Round has been a roller coaster of a year for Boston. And yet, there is still a lot of hope for this team. Photo by Matt Ston

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 4/27/2026 Photo by WJ/ Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Caleb Lomu Tackle Utah Pick: #28 Lomu is an athletic Tackle with good size and room to grow even more muscle on his frame. As Utah's Left Tackle for the past two seasons, Lomu was a better pass blocker than run blocker and was also named to the 2024 Academic All-Big 12 team as well. As the Patriots depth chart stands, Campbell and Moses are better off at Tackle in 2026. Lomu is athletic and

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 4/23/2026 Graphic by The Sporting News 1. Miami Dolphins Jeremiah Smith - WR Ohio State Jeremiah Smith is the best wide receiver prospect I've ever seen and the best player in this class. Seeing as Malik Willis just got a contract before the 2026 season, the Dolphins should get him a #1 weapon rather than enter the Quarterback sweepstakes which means this pick will likely be traded for come next April for a team trying to get... 2. New York Jets

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 4/24/2026 Photo by Kirby Lee/ Imagn Imgaes via CNN 1. Fernando Mendoza - LV Grade: A- The right pick. Mendoza isn't the perfect QB prospect but he's very good and the best of the class. He'll be under no pressure to start until he's ready with Kirk Cousins on the roster and is already surrounded by Jeanty and Bowers. 2. David Bailey - NYJ Grade: A I had Bailey as the 2nd pick all along and a much better fit for the Jets than Reese so I love the

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 4/21/2026 Graphic by ESPN Click here for Full Positional Rankings 1. Caleb Downs Safety Ohio St Best Safety Prospect I've scouted either in the box or in deep zone. The only knock on him is that he's not 6'4" like Kyle Hamilton but to me, his instincts and fearlessness are even better. 2. Jeremiyah Love Running Back Notre Dame The biggest home run hitter in the class both on the ground or through the air. Love may not be the biggest back like

by Zak Drapeau and Joel Piton Sportz Nation - 4/19/2026 Graphic by Comet Sports via cometonline.com Every franchise has its icons, and legacy in the NBA is a brutal conversation. Great stats are nice. All-Star appearances help. But Mount Rushmore status? That’s different. That’s reserved for the players who literally became the franchise—the ones who switched up the culture, won over cities, made themselves impossible to erase from team history, and actually compelled you boo

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 4/8/2026 Graphic by NFL For the first time in the 2026 Draft season I will be putting out a Mock Draft with trades. This exercise helps with 2 things, the first being it gives everyone an idea of the most likely candidates to move picks when it comes to the First Round on April 24 and also shakes up the normal routine of draft picks we see selected just about at the same selection just about every time. I will probably make a separate list just

by Zak Drapeau and Matt Hylen Sportz Nation - 3/30/2026 Photo by Steven Bisig/ Imagn Images Joe Pyfer vs Anthony Hernandez Zak Drapeau - Pyfer started his fight with Izzy slow but showed us all what he's capable of with devastating power and controlled grappling. Now it's time for him to get another Top-5 fight where a lot more will be on the line. I have him against Fluffy next as a more complete fighter than Izzy and one still in his prime. Hernandez's grappling will be a g

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation 3/25/2026 Photo by Fayez Nureldine/ AFP via Getty Images Honorable Mentions: Paul Hughes ( PFL) Lightweight MMA 14-3 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Samet Agdeve (ONE) Heavyweight MMA 18-0 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Thad Jean (PFL) Welterweight MMA 11-0 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Anatoly Malykhin (ONE) Middleweight, Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight MMA 14-1 ________________________________ Top-

Photo graphic by Sporting News Selection Sunday consistently follows the same pattern for fans: the bracket is revealed, analysts begin highlighting potential upsets, and fans quickly start discussing which teams might make it all the way. However, for the players, March is about more than just the bracket; it's about the people alongside you in the locker room, teammates who motivated you during early morning workouts, coaches who supported you when the season became challen

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 3/18/26 Photo by Jeff Bottari/ Zuffa LLC 1. Islam Makhachev Lightweight Record: 16-1 Championship Record: 5-0 Best "Prime": 16-0 [2016-Pres.] The big debate will be between Islam and Khabib for the #1 spot of the division and while Khabib was the bigger star because of McGregor, I have Islam by a hair. Now that he's Welterweight Champion It's likely we've seen the last of Islam at Lightweight where his final records include a 15-fight win strea

by Zak Drapeau and Matt Hylen Sportz Nation - 3/16/26 Photo by Chris Unger/ Getty images Kevin Vallejos vs Yair Rodriguez Zak Drapeau - Vallejos has shown me enough that he should be taken seriously and given a top fight, and Yair Rodriguez seemingly has nothing else going on. A step up to #3 may be a bit soon for the 23-year-old, but after dispatching Chikadze and Emmett in the fashion he did, I'm ready to get a better look at what this phenom can do against a higher-qualit

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 3/14/2026 On Friday, March 13th Matt Hylen and myself did our first Mock Draft together of the 2026 season. Follow us on X for in podcast form if you want to listen in live as we'll do several more of these before the actual draft. This Mock Draft was an exercise we wanted to do because of Free Agency. While the period only technically started 2 days ago, "legal tampering" started Monday and we've seen the majority of the bigger moves take place